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Perhaps the best known and most influential of the ancient Tours of Hell was the Apocalypse of
Paul. It had a strong impact upon Dante who only had to add conversations with the damned to
adapt its structure for his Tour.

This work was known by Augustine who scornfully designated

it "fables."

At many points the Apocalypse of Paul is strikingly similar to the Apocalypse of

Peter, although longer and more detailed.

The Apocalypse of Paul records the alleged content of the revelation actually received by

the Apostle Paul when he was taken into the third heaven, a revelation that the apostle described
as involving "things that cannot be told, which man may not utter" (2 Corinthians 12:2-4). It
consists of an extended tour of what happens after death, including an important segment on Hell
on which we shall focus our attention.

As with the Apocalypse of Peter, the Apocalypse of Paul connected specific sins with

what were considered appropriate punishments, though giving more details, mentioning more
categories of sinners and more types of punishments.

These included pits, worms, beasts, rivers

of fire, and more angels of torment. Grotesque pictures of the sufferings of the damned included
wailing and gnashing of teeth, moaning and groaning in utter darkness, sinking in rivers of fire to
their knees, stomach, lips or eyelids, depending upon which member of the body had been
involved in sin, and torment by worms that do not die.

This was the first Apocalypse to connect

church-related sins to their appropriate punishment.

Samples of sins mentioned along with their appropriate punishments include the

following:

Those who left the church and resumed their idle talk will be immersed in a river of

fire up to their knees (31). Those who received communion while continuing to sin will wade in
that river of fire up to their navels. Those who slandered each other while in church will be
immersed in that river up to their lips. Those who nod to each other while secretly plotting evil
against their neighbor will be covered up in that river up to their eyebrows.

The elders who ate, drank, fornicated while "serving" the altar in their ministry will be

attacked and strangled by the guardians of Tartarus who will use three-pronged forks to pierce
their intestines (34). The unjust bishop who shows no compassion for widows and orphans will
be pierced and beaten by four angels (35). The deacon with bloody hands will be up to his knees
in the river of fire while worms come out of his mouth and from his nostrils (36a). The one who
reads the Biblical commandments to the people while failing to keep them will have his lips and
tongue lacerated by a blazing razor wielded by an angel (36b). Those who reviled the word of
God in church will be confined to a wall while chewing their tongues (37b). Those who broke
fasts will be hung over a channel of water with fruit nearby which they will not be permitted to
consume.

Usurers will be attacked and devoured by worms (37a). Fornicators will experience

unceasing torment in a pit of fire (38).Women who gave up their virginity before marriage will
wear blazing chains on their shoulders (39a). Adulterers will be hung by their eyebrows or hair in
a river of fire (39d). Male homosexuals will be put in tar and sulphur running in a river of fire
(39e). Those guilty of abortion and infanticide will be torn to pieces by wild animals on fiery
pyramids and strangled by angels of punishment (40). Those failing to show compassion will be
clothed in rags full of sulphuric fire, serpents draped around their bodies, and angels with horns
of fire to beat them and close their nostrils. As can be observed from the above, the relationship
between sin and punishment is not always clear.